


The Precipice of Man

by Trident Silver (fluxfiction)



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Action, Disabled Character, Gen, Giant Robots, Human AU, Irish Dante, Irish Vergil, Mild Gore, Nero's arm is a Kaiju part, Original Jaegers - Freeform, Pacific Rim AU, tfw you love Credo but still haven't written a fic where he doesn't die
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:21:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23557489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluxfiction/pseuds/Trident%20Silver
Summary: The first time you see a Jaeger, you remember it.
Relationships: Dante & Vergil (Devil May Cry), Nero & Vergil (Devil May Cry)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	The Precipice of Man

**Author's Note:**

> GdT based the original pacrim universe on early 2010's knowledge; I built this one based on some knowledge and mecha influences that are slightly more modern. In other words: this is fanfiction. I made stuff up. Robots Good. Robots smash.
> 
> This was started back in May 2019. Any similarities to current events are coincidence. This is a work of fiction and does not condone illegal or amoral activities. No longer a oneshot for the sake of getting it finished (someday).
> 
> Thanks as always to my helpers! Remember to read the tags.
> 
> \- TS

He heard the choppers first.

Bedecked in body armour, lined up with armed forces, you'd conclude the worst were you too in a foreign country not known for graceful care of its own citizens, especially in a protest demanding solutions to favouritism, corruption, and joblessness. That was Nero — Nero assumed the worst. Perhaps the government reached further into their military budget, prepared to set an example of every person in the vicinity of the local parliament. The sound of the choppers shifted the air in an instant. A peaceful political statement became adrenaline hung by the tension of survival. Shouts and screams rebounded off stone architecture, echoing hauntingly through the plaza. Young people ran into the barricades yelling expletives and older citizens grabbed for the arms of loved ones. Nero reacted as he was meant to, doubling down on his section of fence, hoping it wouldn't escalate to the point where shots were fired into the crowd. Olive-skinned, brown, orange, or white, the protesters moved as individuals that decided if meeting justice was worth sacrificing their own lives.

When the shadow fell over the road, the world lapsed into silence. In that one instant, every being with a conscience and a beating heart turned up their heads to look at whatever was blocking the sun. Clarity would hit you with the understanding that this wasn't a cloud, but a machine, a creature engineered for slaying monsters. A mountain was what Nero witnessed, one incomprehensibly tall, crafted from minerals of the earth, shining of painted steel. An instant of hyper-awareness focused Nero's vision onto the stencilling of one panel; writing in a Nordic language and then in English: _The Unafraid_.

The first time you see a Jaeger, you remember it.

Beyond the Jaeger loomed a great beast. Faint against the horizon, its silhouette was a curved mass of powerful limbs and reptilian scales. As people started to run, protesters and police alike, Nero stood and watched. The Jaeger thrust its right arm forward. Its hand rotated on a hinge, folding sideways. Once the hand was stowed away, the outer ring of metal around its wrist split open to reveal gigantic, slatted intakes.

Fire rumbled. Air trembled around the arm's base like the rippling around a jet engine. Acrid fumes burst into the sky, tainting the clouds black. The flamethrower burned leathery flesh for dozens of cubic feet, hissing and spitting, roaring as the Kaiju roared back in return.

That was how it should have ended. A victory for humanity, united by a machine worth a thousand men.

But there would always be those people who thought differently.

One of the protesters took Nero's distraction to press their advantage. The woman—it was a woman—she slammed her fists into the barrier and Nero swore as the shock went through his shoulders when he wasn't ready for it. She screamed something hateful, sounds pained and beautiful in the local language. Nero braced for another impact and found her eyes staring into him, burning, distant. An uncontrolled clamour shook through her jaw. A wetness seeped into Nero's sleeve.

Blood.

Nero looked down. His right arm was inside her abdomen. He pulled it back before he could think, and she collapsed onto him.

A distant roar reminded him he was next to a battlefield, and as he turned, he saw the two titans grappling. The Jaeger's left side thrust a blade into the joint of the Kaiju's mouth, through the cushion of soft scales. It moved with the precision of a surgeon, twisting the blade deep and down far into the Kaiju's throat. The Kaiju thrashed with all its legs and limbs. A cold poignancy left Nero short of breath and something inside him twisted in fear. Destructive may have been the flamethrower, but this was unparalleled in its lethality.

At some point, Nero must have moved, because then a weight tumbled onto Nero's feet and he was jolted back into his body. The woman slid off his shield and crumpled. He looked to his right and saw darkened claws protruding from his elbow, the dripping of warm red liquid onto asphalt painted with white pedestrian lines, and knew with the certainty of being wrong and different that everyone else in the square could see him. Hastily he fumbled the claws back into his torn sleeve, hoping they were distracted, but then the first fingers pointed toward his scaled arm and the woman bleeding out. Nero couldn't meet their eyes. He knew he looked like a monster.

In one last cry, the Kaiju screeched, deafening, then it tumbled to the Earth in a terrifying tremor that sent Nero to his knees. Anyone who hadn't run yet, who could run, chose this moment to get away. The Jaeger turned and took a monumental step. Then another, and another.

And then the Jaeger was gone.

In its place hung silence. The mountain with carnage and ruin strewn in its wake. Those who tripped slowly started making their way to their feet. A hollow sob cut above their heads as a few people began to cry. Nero knelt to the ground and crouched next to the woman, rolling her over and trying not to swallow. Prepared for the bloody hole in her abdomen, unprepared when some of her guts fell loose, he looked to her face. Shocked, angry, those reactions to his arm would come even after death. Her empty eyes stared up at Nero accusing him most of all.

With the smoke dissipating, and light returning to the sky, there was a gesture by one of the other police officers in Nero's direction. Sweep the street, look for other dissidents who might be hiding. Nero left the woman, checking the makeshift binding on his arm, thinking about the giant reptilian carcass in the distance. There were still undesirables milling around the buildings, regrouping. Nero focused on them, hoping they would stay peaceful, that it wouldn't turn to violence. He tried not to think about the woman who would become a number on his report. Here he obeyed the choices of a leader that wasn't his, serving in a country that wasn't home.

Taking up a riot shield with his human hand, Nero knew the real monster should be him.

* * *

Nero was drying off his arm when Credo entered their shared accommodation.

"Nero."

Credo's back was straight and his brow was set firm. Nero couldn't help tensing at his foster brother's tone, and remembered how stained the water had been when he was washing up. A pile of bloody ribbons sat in the wastebasket, the remains of another sleeve ruined by his claws, clear evidence of inflicting injury if Credo looked.

Somehow, Nero didn't think this was a social call.

"Credo? You good?" Nero asked. "Did something happen ..."

Credo shook his head. "Come. It's time I taught you how to do business."

"What, I'm finally old enough?"

"No." Credo looked away, clearly uncomfortable. "I'm being recalled to the Order."

Nero set the towel aside. "Everything's fine?"

"Fine enough. But there's someone in Hong Kong with whom the council seek to form an alliance. I have been chosen as ambassador."

"Wow. Wow, uh," Nero swallowed again, this time realising that he would be replacing Credo's current job. "I know you wanted to do - other stuff. That's great."

A small smile slipped onto Credo's face, adding handsomeness to that sharp jaw. "I'm glad you're taking it well."

Nero punched Credo's arm below the shoulder.

They made their way along a road leading away from town in a dark Jeep that shook and rattled on loose dirt. Nero sat as he always did, leaned to one side, window half-open so he could put his hand on the roof. Before he left, he ran his left arm over his right. Everything from the elbow down was Kaiju flesh, born from whatever dimension the scientists claimed Kaiju to be from now. In its resting state it was a dark, scaled lizard limb with a leathery flap slotted along the outer length. Following Credo's lead, he changed into casual clothes. He'd secured the flap under two belts, pulled on gloves and a light arm wrapping to hide it, and flipped up the hood on his vest to hide his hair colour. A tingling started in his shoulder as the Kaiju arm grew agitated. It stopped shifting against its bindings once Nero rested it across his upper thigh.

Credo took a turn onto a narrower, dirtier path. All around them was nothingness and empty silence. Kaiju strikes ended the same way. Animals missing from their homes. People seeking shelter instead of going out.

It changed with a blip.

In less than a second, a small truck appeared on the horizon, approaching at speed. Another half-second passed when both vehicles realised they were sharing the same lane. They swerved and terror surged through Nero as they swung in the same direction. An explosion of motion followed, Credo pushing their four-wheeler to its limits, one hand on the wheel and the other on the gearstick. Nero tightened his grip on the roof, bracing himself for the moment they might flip over.

And then they stopped.

As dust and adrenaline died down, their front windshield pointed towards the other driver's side door, Nero tried to catch his breath.

Credo made a sharp gesture out his window. "What is your problem?"

A man with silver hair stuck his head out. "Sorry, sorry!" The words were in English with an accent that wasn't local.

"Not the first time, you duck!" Credo roared in English as well.

The other man moved to grin at Credo, letting Nero see a red cross of a first aid kit inside the other vehicle. "Now no need to be that hasty. Can't begrudge a guy for doing what he knows, can ya?"

"I tell you, this is not your _Ireland_." Credo scoffed. "Do they know you still use your military kit on the locals?"

The other man tapped outside the door of his truck with his knuckles. It hit Nero all at once that he was gripping the door so firmly his knuckles had gone white; Nero relaxed his hands and felt tension leaving his spine. "We're too good for them to complain about it." The truck spluttered as it started up. "See ya!"

It drove past their Jeep and soon vanished in the rearview mirror.

"Who was —" Nero began.

"A mercenary. One of the Hunter twins that pilot the Norwegian Jaeger, Dante."

If Nero was a curious young man, which he occasionally was, he might have asked more questions.

Credo drove in silence.

Fine enough. Nero didn't talk much on drives anyway.

* * *

Nero had seen plenty of Kaiju. His arm came from one. The labs in Fortuna were filled with tanks and bottles of Kaiju parts. He and Credo were seconded to areas where Kaiju were known to make land with governments happy to utilise Fortuna's expertise in removing them.

He got where people were coming from if they didn't know how a small independent city state in northern Italy was so skilled at disassembling monsters all the way from the Pacific Rim. Nero spent his days manning the embassy guard. All he knew about the international Kaiju economy was what Credo told him second-hand.

Credo carried the special pressure chamber off the back of the Jeep and had Nero bring the armoured cases filled with their equipment. They descended into the small crater, gravel crunching beneath their boots, and then they were next to the Kaiju. It was a rare case for the reptilian creatures to have gotten this far inland. This Kaiju had a sleekness to it that suggested it spent most of its time underwater. Its skin was blackened with bubbles where the flames had touched. Below its spines, an ugly wound bled onto the sand.

Nero was just about to look for the gash at its mouth when the wind changed direction, hailing upon it an acrid, sticky pungency that tried to coat a bitter layer over his tongue. Credo gestured to the filter mask he was wearing and Nero got the hint to put his on.

They stopped next to the head. Nero thought morbidly that the eye burned off on the Kaiju's face and the slash in its mouth made it resemble a clown.

Credo turned to him. "Now. How much do you know about Agnus's specifications?"

"Sit through his rants every time you do."

Credo rolled his eyes skywards. Nero knew him well enough to know it should have been a chuckle.

"I must remind you that it is critical we address the issue of the natural toxicity in the blood, and the effects of Kaiju Blue. The silver fibres in our masks and our natural constitution will mitigate most effects within us. However, the environment is a different nature, and thus ..."

Lecturing came naturally to Credo. He kept moving as he spoke, teaching Nero as he worked. Credo opened the armoured cases, taking out the pieces of custom machinery that would make up their mobile workstation. His dexterous hands connected parts and untwisted cables as he instructed Nero to survey the beast. Credo twisted some dials on the pressure chamber, waiting for Nero to record the readings. Finally, he paused to take a breath, and indicated Nero should take the hacksaw.

"Go ahead," said Credo, glancing up and finding Nero waiting for instructions. "Choose some parts."

Nero, sensing that would be all the instruction given, took his time to examine the carcass. Back in Fortuna, Agnus's lab had a ton of odd bits and pieces. Thinking of Fortuna's leading Kaiju operation scientist, he picked one of the monster's spiny appendages. Credo nodded approvingly as Nero went about its removal. Around them, the soft and gentle breeze carried whispers of distant conflict and wisps of salty sea water.

When Nero leaned back, pausing to examine how much was left, Credo had a pump set up to collect the rich blood that would be processed for valuable sulfur and traces of rare minerals. Nero watched his foster brother for a moment. Happy as he was for Credo's promotion and relocation, bitterness began to let itself be known. Fortuna was a prideful nation-state, dispatching only those people who had Kaiju parts to represent her interests. Like Nero's arm, Credo's were small, stubby, wing-like fins exposed by the cuts at the tops of his sleeves. They were a part of his shoulder blades, densely folded, just under ten feet long when unfurled. Chances were that the wing stubs were also like Nero's arm, fused with the special intermediary control tissues Agnus pioneered from a tiny laboratory. The control tissues would translate conscious and subconscious prompts into signals the Kaiju parts interpreted as commands.

Thinking about his arm, the claws gave an interested twitch. It'd been... god, two years since he'd last seen Kyrie. Now he might never see Credo ever again.

But that wasn't his problem.

Nero hefted himself up onto the back of the monster's skull and plunged the second of a three-part neutralisation agent into it. From up here, if one could excuse its size, it looked almost docile as it died. Harmless. Credo walked around to the front, calibration instruments in both arms, presumably to inspect its eyes. Everything was going well.

And then the creature shifted and opened its mouth.

" _CREDO!_ " Nero screamed, seeing his brother turning in slow motion.

He'd look back on this moment. He dashed, but it would never have changed Credo's fate. The Kaiju roared, expressing pain the only way an animal knew how. Credo was pulling back. It didn't attack, yet Credo's body had locked up. Credo wasn't moving. Something had gone wrong.

But what was it?

Then Nero was there, pulling his brother away even as he punched the beast in the face. _Rip it_ , he thought to his arm. His arm listened and transformed. Flesh split open from flesh. The bindings were ripped open as a secondary claw reached out from its leathery fold along the first and tore into the Kaiju's eye. It stretched to its full length, slicing through ligaments until reaching something soft. Nero screamed and his arm twisted. The Kaiju screamed back. At last it stilled, life leaving its body. Nero examined the nerve response and thought he'd punched into the carcass's brain.

His two claws made a little flicking motion as if to criticise Nero for being dull.

Nero let it drip crushed organs and toxic blood onto the sand as he hurried over to Credo. Credo had fallen on his side after Nero moved him. With dread starting to make itself known, he turned him over.

What had once been stubby wings were long, tapered fangs. They'd tried to eliminate the Kaiju much like Nero's arm had, but instead stabbed through their master's abdomen as they tried to take the shortest route to the threat. Nero froze for long, precious seconds, until Credo shifted and tried to cough. He knew this. This was shock. He quickly removed his hoodie on one side, folded it over to wrap his claws without taking it off, and ran to get the insulation they kept for freezer boxes. The emergency kit was next, his head shoved into the strap, and then he was running back to Credo's side and checking his breathing and trying to keep him warm.

He couldn't think about the woman from earlier. She was probably dead by now. That's what happened in this country. He focused on forcing shaking fingers to set up the satellite phone, and pulling on long nitrile gloves, and managing Credo's bleeding with the largest bandages. The weight of the woman's life lodged painfully in his chest. She might be dead. But he wouldn't let anything take Credo either.

The phone connected, and Nero called home to Fortuna.

**Author's Note:**

> I am looking for friends. 🥺  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/flux_fiction) \- [ask.fm](https://ask.fm/tridentsilver)
> 
> Please consider leaving your thoughts. Thank you!


End file.
